


Socially Inhibited Friends

by BeautifulSoup



Category: Raven Cycle - Maggie Stiefvater
Genre: Book 1: The Raven Boys, F/M, Ficlet, Gen, Missing Scene, Pre-Relationship, alternate POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-17
Updated: 2016-06-17
Packaged: 2018-07-15 16:36:08
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,091
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7230226
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeautifulSoup/pseuds/BeautifulSoup
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p><em>He watched Gansey stride across the restaurant to the waitress while Ronan barked a cruel laugh beside him. He didn’t want to watch, but he couldn’t look away. He suddenly understood the phrase </em>like watching a car crash.</p><p>Adam thinks the waitress is cute. He also really doesn't want Gansey to talk to her.</p><p>The Nino's meet-cute (meet-ugly?) from Adam's POV.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Socially Inhibited Friends

**Author's Note:**

> So I've just reread The Raven Boys for the nth time and remembered how much I love the scene where Blue meets the boys, but wanted to know what had lead up to Gansey trying to chat her up for Adam. So this happened. 
> 
> I basically just wanted to enjoy them all being _teenagers_ before everything went weird. And I just love how cute Adam and Blue were in TRB. (I may have also been unable resist throwing in some very unsubtle Pynch foreshadowing. I am weak.)

They were going to meet the psychic tomorrow after school, Gansey explained once their waitress had taken their order (batting her eyelashes at them all in turn as she did) and brought them a jug of iced tea. The woman on the phone had tried to get them in that evening, Gansey said, and Adam felt that strange chill of being _observed_ as Gansey described the urgency she had shown.

“Self-important much?” Ronan asked when Adam voiced this concern. “Maybe she just really needs the money, how often do you think a psychic in fucking _Henrietta_ gets clients?”

Adam supposed he had a point. He had found the number for the psychic in the phone book, and had never heard of anyone who had actually gone for a reading. He pressed his lips together and looked around the restaurant absently, sipping his iced tea. His eyes caught on the waitress who wasn’t serving their table.

He had seen her before when they’d come in, and his eyes always seemed to snag on her. Something about her bizarre clothes and spiky hair and pretty face drew his gaze like a magnet. Adam wasn’t entirely sure why someone would cut up clothes like that, but it definitely seemed to be deliberate in her case and it definitely worked for her.

There was something of the warning-sign about her, the every-which-way hair and the tattered clothes, and for some reason she occasionally put him in mind of Ronan with his buzzed head and ripped jeans. Unlike Ronan, she always had a smile on her face. There was, however, always something Ronan-like simmering in her eyes that implied she was not at all happy to be serving them, contrary to her expression. Adam understood the value of a Customer Service Smile, and wondered what would be simmering in her eyes outside of work.

They never seemed to get a table in her section, and he wasn’t sure if he was annoyed by that or not.

“Dude, eyes forward,” Ronan growled, following the words up with an aggressive elbow in Adam’s side. Adam pulled his eyes away from her to glare at Ronan.

“Are we distracting you?” Gansey asked, a playful smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. Adam felt his ears colouring, but couldn’t help another quick glance as the waitress passed their table.

“What?” He muttered, playing with the straw sticking out of his glass of iced tea and not looking any of them in the eye.

“I could go talk to her if you’re scared,” Gansey suggested, eyebrows far too near his hairline.

“I’m not scared,” Adam said, looking at Gansey across the booth.

He wasn’t scared, truly. He just wasn’t sure how much he had to offer a girl, really. Any spare time he had between school and his three jobs was eaten up by Gansey’s quest for Glendower and antagonising Ronan. A girlfriend wouldn’t fit very easily into the template, however much he would like one to. Specifically, he would quite like the waitress with the dark, crazy hair to fit into that template, but Adam was good at figuring out equations and quickly came to the conclusion that it wouldn’t work.

“Seriously? Walmart Bjork?” Ronan was saying, one eyebrow raised. He had turned in his seat to get a better look at Adam, his elbow resting on the back of the booth. Adam had never seen him look so incredulous. It had the opposite effect from what he was sure Ronan was aiming for: it evaporated Adam’s embarrassment and made him sit taller.

“She’s cute.” Adam locked eyes with him. He was not going to let Ronan win this stupid argument of all things.

Their own waitress came back to deliver their pizzas, pausing their conversation. She placed the food on the table with a salacious wink to Ronan which he completely ignored in favour of staring down Adam. Ronan broke off their impromptu staring contest by rolling his eyes with a snort. Adam allowed himself to smile a little in celebration.

“If you don’t think she’s cute, then tell me what the Ronan Lynch type is,” Adam challenged, reaching for a slice of pizza.

Ronan snorted again and shoved most of a slice into his mouth, chewing offensively open-mouthed. “Not fucking midgets, that’s for sure.”

Adam wrinkled his nose as a piece of half-chewed crust landed on his arm. He flicked it off and turned his attention from Ronan.

“I think you should talk to her,” Noah said, surprisingly earnest. Adam caught his gaze. There was something bigger in Noah’s eyes than he had expected to see, and somehow it made Adam’s heart thump in something like anticipation.

Adam caught sight of her again and watched as she went through to the back of the restaurant. There was something about the way she held herself, the way she dressed, that caught his interest, like she knew herself and was proud of who she was. Adam briefly pondered how much of his interest in her was actually jealousy, but he didn’t poke at the thought.

Gansey caught him looking.

“Seriously,” Gansey said, “do you want me to talk to her?”

“I’m not _scared_ ,” Adam repeated. “She’s _working_ , it’s _rude_.” Gansey wouldn’t understand that, though.

“I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if we just introduced ourselves.” Gansey spared a glance at Ronan, his eyebrows drew together briefly. “Well, you and me, anyway.”

“Hey!” Noah protested, flicking iced tea from his straw at Gansey. Adam laughed at that.

“So, what’s the plan with the psychic?” He asked, attempting to steer the conversation away from him and the waitress. It worked, and Gansey went on to explain his experiences with psychics in the past, the differences and similarities he had seen in different countries, the phonies and the ones who seemed to know something.

Adam had thought the topic had been dropped as Gansey transformed into his professor persona, but then Gansey got to his feet, folding his napkin and placing it neatly on the table. Adam didn’t pay attention at first, assuming that Gansey was just going to use the dubiously hygienic toilet.

Then Gansey said, “If you won’t…” and walked away.

“Gansey, no, don’t, I- shit.”

He watched Gansey stride across the restaurant to the waitress while Ronan barked a cruel laugh beside him. He didn’t want to watch, but he couldn’t look away. He suddenly understood the phrase _like watching a car crash_.

“Holy shit,” Ronan said with a sharp grin, "This is gonna be good," and turned to watch.


End file.
